The Hon Peter Garrett MP
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts
13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change
Bali, Indonesia

Good afternoon.,Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of the Australian Government, I would like to welcome the launch of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and to congratulate Mr Zoellick and the World Bank on this important initiative.

The Australian Government is especially pleased to be associated with the World Bank’s initiative. We were the inaugural donor to this fund. I am pleased to be able to reaffirm today Australia’s commitment of US$10 million to the Facility.

Now I’m one in a room full of believers in the importance of REDD – Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degredation.

It is the case that there are difficult questions of methodology and technical challenges associated with forest carbon monitoring and accounting. There are also forces that tend to erode the institutions and practices of good forest governance. These are all important and complex subjects on which an enormous amount of work remains to be done.

However I want to focus on the need for attention to the human factor, for REDD programs simply cannot succeed over the long term unless they respect principles of social justice and equity.

It is important to acknowledge that countries will need to continue to use their forests for development. REDD provides new opportunities not only to protect high conservation value forests but also to promote sustainable forest management practices.

As there are some 60 million forest-dependent people in Indonesia alone, these are the people who must benefit from REDD programs if they are to deliver sustainable and equitable results. And of course these are the people who must be involved in the development of REDD programs from the outset.

Australia has already committed substantial technical support and funding to Indonesia for the preparation of REDD pilot programs. I would hope that some of this funding can be used to ensure that pilot programs are developed in the most transparent and consultative fashion possible. This will help to ensure that the programs proposed for financing by Australia, or by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, have the best possible chance of success.

I don’t underestimate the difficulties that lie ahead. But I do believe that successful REDD programs will, in time, be constructed and replicated. And that the most successful will be the ones that contribute most to equitable human development.

I congratulate the World Bank and its many partner countries and organisations on the launch of this new facility. We will take our partnership with the Bank on this initiative very seriously. We will work closely with the Bank and other partners here today on the challenges of methodology, measurement and governance, and we won’t neglect the challenge of social inclusion or the rights of indigenous local people or the principle of equity as we jointly undertake this task.